


Take Me In

by extrasolar (hearthope)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Character Study, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-06 20:55:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16394936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hearthope/pseuds/extrasolar
Summary: Koutarou never really thought Akaashi was one for touch.  Like Sarukui, maybe, who prefers to keep his hands to himself, and gets shifty if someone’s leaning on him too long.  Or maybemaybeSaito, who’s cool with it so long as he initiates it.He is terribly, terribly far off.Akaashi, contrary to initial belief, is the touchiest person Bokuto's ever known.





	Take Me In

Akaashi is quiet. Not in the sense that they don’t have much to say, or that they’re too shy to say it. It’s simply that they’re direct.

  


It took Koutarou time to make the distinction. The rest of the team, too, he likes to think. He used to think Akaashi was just a nervous first-year, who would speak up more as they became more comfortable with the team. But that never really happened, in the way Koutarou was expecting. They never showed themself to ramble on until someone else cuts them off in the way Konoha or Koutarou himself do. But Koutarou notes that there isn’t a lingering awkwardness about them in the way Onaga has, like they’re still learning to speak their mind.

  


Rather, Akaashi has always been forward with their words. Even their introduction to the team is direct, to-the-point. Name, year, class, position. Steady tone, despite fidgeting fingers.

  


When there’s a play they want to try, they ask. If they have thoughts to share about the movie Sarukui and Yukie are talking about, they’ll speak them, and that’s that. They tell their stories and share their thoughts with as few words as they can tell them with, but they always share. There isn’t any shyness about it.

  


Koutarou catches onto this later than he should, but he still catches onto it. Akaashi is and always has been forward with their words.

  


So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’re just as forward with everything else.

  


It’s on the bus home from a practice game against Shinzen that he first notices. Akaashi’s clearly exhausted, but they still listen to Koutarou talk about Ryu’s jump serve, and the curry rice his sister made for dinner last night. They add their own thoughts here and there, but Koutarou’s filling the most of the silence.

  


He stutters halfway through a sentence when Akaashi leans against him, cheek pressed to his shoulder, a solid weight. They don’t say anything about it, or look up to Koutarou even when he falters. They only fold their arms over their chest, getting more comfortable, and let Koutarou find his footing again.

  


It’s not like Koutarou is a stranger to touch. Most of his friends and teammates are relatively touchy people — _Koutarou_ is a touchy person. There are always arms around shoulders and sleepy bus rides spent leaning against one another. Komi is almost always holding someone’s hand, and Konoha hangs on Washio’s back during nearly every team huddle, latched on like a koala. It’s just that Koutarou never really thought _Akaashi_ was one for touch. Like Sarukui, maybe, who prefers to keep his hands to himself, and gets shifty if someone’s leaning on him too long. Or maybe _maybe_ Saito, who’s cool with it so long as he initiates it.

  


This is a terribly far off thought.

  


Koutarou is more attentive after that, and the more he watches, the more he realizes Akaashi might be one of the touchiest people he’s ever known.

  


Konoha is pushing out a cart of volleyballs for morning practice, and Akaashi has an arm around his shoulders as they talk too low for Koutarou to catch any of it. Lunch, Koutarou joins his team to find Komi holding their hand. Akaashi struggles to open their tea with their single free hand, but they don’t pull away from Komi. Late after one unofficial weekend practice, when they’re all sitting around splitting Sarukui’s stash of Kit-Kats, and Akaashi lays between Washio’s legs, back settled against his chest, comfortable.

  


On weekends, when they go see movies together, Akaashi leans against Koutarou in the theater, even though the armrest must be digging into their side. They wrap a casual hand around his arm during discussions at practice, and after, when they’re all exhausted and ready to leave, they drop their head onto Koutarou’s shoulder, letting out heavy breaths as they try to cool down, and Koutarou doesn’t know what to do with his hands.

  


When he really stops to think about it, Koutarou can’t find a time Akaashi _isn’t_ touching someone in some way. Scratch the _one of_ — Akaashi is _the_ touchiest person he’s ever known.

  


(It makes sense, when he meets their family, and all their siblings are constantly wrestling for control of the remote or crammed onto the same couch to watch a movie or simply nestled together on the stairs taking turns playing one DS. It’s all touch without thought, a casual comfort.)

  


It’s not a problem, really. In fact, Koutarou likes it. He likes Akaashi wordlessly taking his hand when they’re walking to the train, or fidgeting with his fingers when they’re studying an English assignment. He likes the team movie nights when they rest their head in his lap, and the team huddles when they drape an arm over his shoulders.

  


It’s not a problem and Koutarou likes it, until it starts to become a problem when Koutarou realizes he _likes_ it. Likes _Akaashi._

  


Too much. His feelings for Akaashi, Akaashi’s touch a constant presence, they’re both _too much._ Koutarou sometimes feels like he’s going to burst when Akaashi drums their fingers on his knee while they watch old musicals at Washio’s, or plays with his hair during week long training camps when none of them are actually sleeping.

  


That’s not to say Koutarou does anything to stop it. If anything, he makes it worse on himself. He’s always placing himself at Akaashi’s side and finding stolen moments alone with them. He’ll take Akaashi’s hand when they walk together, or lean on them during bus rides to Nekoma. He wonders if it means as much to Akaashi as it does to him.

  


Probably not, he thinks, watching them toy with Konoha’s fingers while they talk on the side of the court.

  


Maybe, he thinks, when they pull their hand from Komi’s to open their milk.

  


_Maybe,_ he thinks again, when it’s just the two of them going back to Akaashi’s one evening and their sisters tease the way Akaashi settles in Koutarou’s lap to watch a drama and Akaashi’s ears burn red.

  


Akaashi has a nice hand for holding.

  


(He’s lucky, he thinks, when Akaashi admits that Koutarou’s is their favorite, too.)

  


(Lucky to be the only one to find out that Akaashi can, actually, be touchier when they really want to.)

**Author's Note:**

> i would give my life for someone to just hold my hand already okay don't @ me


End file.
